Wyoming: Oppose HB0123 February 5, 2019

HB0123 stopped moving in Wyoming, and health freedom advocates welcomed the news that a restrictive and onerous Naturopathic Practitioner Licensure bill did not get reported out of Committee yesterday due to the February 4th committee deadline. Wyoming citizens need to be vigilant to permanently defeat this bill that would take away the right of hundreds of healing practitioners to practice in Wyoming. Click Here to read the bill as introduced.

Wyoming’s HB0123 is a monopolistic restrictive naturopathic practitioner licensing bill. The bill casts a wide net for mandatory licensing of all naturopathic practitioners and for exclusive use of the title “naturopath” to only state licensed naturopaths. The bill defines naturopathic practice to include all of the natural healing arts, including nutritional medicine, botanical medicine, public health measures, hygiene, counseling, homeopathy, acupuncture, and naturopathic physical medicine including naturopathic manipulative therapy. It even defines and makes illegal without a license, naturopathy, to include therapeutic methods and substances that encourage an individual’s inherent self-healing process.

The bill requires licensees to attend approved naturopathic medical programs and successfully pass a national naturopathic physician licensing examination. Traditional naturopathic practitioners, herbalists and complementary and alternative health care professions, who would not qualify to practice or go to the state mandated medical naturopathic schools to become licensed naturopathic practitioners would be put in jeopardy of being criminally charged for practicing naturopathy without a license.

The bill makes naturopathy illegal in Wyoming when it states that:

“…unless the person is licensed to practice naturopathy under this chapter, no person shall:

(i) Practice naturopathy or hold himself out to be a naturopathic doctor, naturopathic practitioner, naturopath or as being able to practice naturopathy in Wyoming;

(ii) Use the title of naturopathic doctor, naturopathic practitioner or naturopath or any variant thereof; or

(iii) Use any words, abbreviations, figures, configuration of letters, including N.D., titles, signs, cards or devices tending to imply that the person is a licensed naturopathic practitioner unless the person is duly licensed.

HB0123 would be a dangerous precedence for Wyoming and health freedom.

We are calling all Wyoming citizens to mobilize and consider introducing a protective complementary and alternative health care practitioner safe harbor exemption bill, to protect consumer access to the broad range of complementary and alternative health care practitioners and the right to practice vocations, including herbalists, traditional naturopaths, homeopaths, life coaches, culturally traditional healing practices, and many more that are providing health services, but that have no intention of become licensed naturopathic practitioners.